The entire bureaucracy suffers from serious lapses. Let's borrow the phrase, "seven deadly sins," as a handle to better understand how they indicatively fail to inform public policy on what government "should do or should not do," to wit:

First: "Tight fiscal space." A little over 60 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) is reserved for foreign lending institutions with which the country has huge borrowings. Consequently, the government has to make do with the remaining less than 40 percent in terms of public spending. It's no urban legend that about 45 percent of these allocable public funds is siphoned off due to massive corruption across all levels of government.

Second: "Good governance." The term, as often used, is an oxymoron. Whenever presidential appointees in any line department, agency, or bureau introduce reforms or new management ideas into state affairs, it's unfortunate that outcomes and impacts go in the opposite direction — or bad governance overshadowing good.

Isn't it a paradox that the "top brass" of the Manila International Airport Authority were dismissed by the Ombudsman even as key stakeholders and captains of industry (i.e., the Makati Business Club) vetted and vouched for their performance par excellence on the job? Contrivedly, a purely management issue just shouldn't be within the purview of the Ombudsman.

For another, how is it that the housing program has become too costly for the government? Reportedly, P36 billion in interest is accrued by the government every year if one million houses are built. With a target of three million houses, the onerous interest is pegged at P100 billion every year, a "sunk cost" that the economy can ill afford to sustain. Why even start a program that demands that humongous amount of interest on a year-by-year basis?

Third: "Street-level bureaucracy." Nearly the whole range of public affairs appears to be manned by those we can compare to a typical traffic enforcer, gate guard, or utility aide, who, if given a chance to exercise a little authority, tend to behave as their actuations come directly from above.

Fourth: "Tax hike." Some strange mathematicians in Congress thought of taxing vehicles per kilo of weight, coupled with jacking up taxes on vehicle users by as much as 90 percent. Worse, how can there be an increase in the road users' tax – year in and year out?